Collaborative requirements development in a wiki on a software engineering course

Shailey Minocha, Pete Thomas, Niall Sclater, Martha Hause

Background and Issues• OU – open, distance learning• Collaborative learning – difficult at a distance• VLE – Moodle (from 2006)• Course – postgraduate, requirements engineering• Research – how best to incorporate online tools

Overview• Context: M883 (the Requirement Engineering course)• Rationale for Collaborative (group) work on the course• VLE (Moodle) tools• Integration of Collaborative activities• Issues during Implementation• Practicalities (how we have done it)• Experiences to date

Context – CourseSoftware Requirements for Business Systems

–Postgraduate (in several programmes)–150 hours of study–3 Tutor Marked Assignments, no substitution–Final 3 hour unseen exam–2 presentations per year (May & November)–Currently in its second presentation (November

2006)–Approx. 150 students per presentation

Course - content• How to elicit and record requirements for a product so

that the requirements can be:–communicated–analysed – implemented (built), and –evolved

• To produce a requirements specification–a formalised, template-based document– following a proven process

Participative Requirements Engineering • Requirements Engineering on a project is performed ‘in

the real world’ by a team of requirements engineers• More work is being done remotely and across time

zones• Need for effective communications, particularly

asynchronous• Better requirements (quality) are achieved within

groups

Use of the VLE ToolsIn the second presentation of the course (November 2006) we have introduced:–Collaborative activities - using wiki

to support collaborative Requirements Engineering–Reflection - using personal journal

and revised the TMA (Tutor-Marked Assignment) structure accordingly for wiki and reflection

–Online quizzes (for each Study Guide)

Issues or Challenges• Student workload• Knowledge about wikis (course team, students, tutors)• Stakeholders’ interests and perspectives (Tutors,

students, external assessor, Faculty, VLE-team, developers)

• Informing the students: ‘new’ activities (linking with the pedagogy of the course)

• Encouraging collaboration• Feedback from students: Inputs for the course team

and encouraging (explicit) reflection amongst students• Wiki tool (usability and support issues)

Collaborative activities• TMA01

– Learn about wikis and how to use Moodle wiki– An ice breaker task:

• Select a stakeholder role in a case study• Essentially an individual activity

• TMA02– Devise and submit some requirements from the point of view of

the chosen stakeholder (individual)– Analyse and improve the group’s requirements (ambiguity,

duplication, conflict) (collaborative)• TMA03

– Specify the fit criteria for the requirements (collaborative)– Write the specification (collaborative)

Learning about the wiki (TMA01)Using wikis is a new activity for many students

–Read paper about the increasing use of wikis in RE• Keeping up to date (Learning Outcome)

–Read course document (How to use wiki on M883)–Read user manual (Moodle wiki: User’s guide)–Look at sample wiki (which describes how the course

team got to this point)–Do individual activity in TMA01

Moodle WikiA brief look at what the student sees

M883 Course Website (VLE)

Click on this link to access

the wiki

Course Team designed structure

Click here to add to this

page

Click here to see a history of who

did what

Think of a wiki as a collection of pages

Course instructions

Start of student contribution

Practicalities• Small groups of about 6 or 7 students

–Small enough to be useful/manageable–Big enough to allow for drop-out and non-attendees–3 groups per tutor

• Time set aside in study calendar for the work–To be completed about a week before the TMA cut-

off date – to allow time to complete the assignment–Relatively short period required to complete the work

(1 week); negotiable by group

Encourage participation• Significant resistance to group work• Approximately 15% of each assignment awarded for

collaborative activity. Marks lost for lack of participation.• Clear rules for participation• Support from tutors

–Some of the rules devised in consultation with the tutors (at course briefing)

–Tutor to encourage their students (near the wiki activity deadline)

–Minimal formal role for tutors

‘How to use’ document• Who can use a wiki? (confidentiality)• What is the group-wiki for? (motivation)• Who are members of your group? (discussion-page)• How to get started? (introductions)• How to edit the wiki? (asynchronous working)• When should the wiki be used? (timetabling)• What should you write in the wiki? (scale of task)

‘How to use’ document (cont.)• What do you write in the TMA? (evidence)• How will TMA be marked? (product and process)• What are your responsibilities? (participation)• Who is in charge? (self management)• What if you can’t participate? (negotiation; loss)• What if others do not participate? (no loss)

Collaborative activities• The product of the collaboration

– the contributions by individuals (e.g. a set of requirements)

–discussion of the product (groups) to develop an artefact

–evidence based (the wiki maintains a history of the contributions)

• The process of collaboration–Communication: organisation, discussions,

negotiations–evidence based (reporting in assignments)

Initial feedback and analysis• Resistance to group work

– Inconvenience / unavailability (organisational issues)“I tend to study once every few weeks and do several chapters at

once - basically, I organise my studying around my life. Now … I'm being asked to organise my life around my studying.”

–Reliance on others“I spent a lot of time waiting for other group members to contribute.”

– Individuality + critical appraisal of other’s work“Some students just weren't professional and felt they had the right

to criticise other students work without being constructive.”

Initial feedback and analysis• Robustness of the wiki (locking, edit window)

–Any system problem increases the resistance• On a positive note:

“I did gain something from it. By working [through] the activity it did improve my understanding of gathering and refining requirements.”

• Balance between amount of work required– for engagement–effective for learning

Reflection• In the third assignment, students have been asked to

report on their reflections: experiences of collaborative activities and the use of the wiki–We have provided a template for reflection:

Reflection: Keeping a journal–Students are encouraged to keep a contemporary

record of their experiences (using the personal journal tool)

• We await the feedback!

Research issues• Did the wiki activities facilitate collaborative content

creation and learning?• Should a wiki be used in conjunction with other tools

(Scheduler, group-blog, forum/conference)• Were the activities appropriate for wiki and vice versa? • Challenges in collaborative writing

–Managing conflicts in views/perspectives–Roles (authors, editors, readers, facilitators)–Rules and social norms (wiki etiquette)

• How effective has been the reflection activity?

Contact and Documentss.minocha@open.ac.uk p.g.thomas@open.ac.uk

• Papers (2007 conferences)– EDEN (research oriented)– ALT-C paper (course oriented - long)– IADIS (course oriented – short)

• OU Documents– Reflection– Moodle Wiki: a User’s Guide– How to use a wiki on M883